The Red Car to Hollywood: Chapters 1–5

by Jennie Liu
The year is 1924, and 16-year-old Ruby Chan is struggling with the expectations placed on her as a young Chinese American woman. When her relationship with a young white man is revealed and Ruby's father decides to marry her to a Chinese man, Ruby decides to take her life into her own hands.

Here are links to our lists for the book:
Chapters 1–5, Chapters 6–12, Chapters 13–17, Chapters 18–22, Chapters 23–27, Chapters 28–34.
15 words 89 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. conspicuous
    obvious to the eye or mind
    Fifth Street wasn’t nearly as busy as it had been in the morning, which oddly made me feel even more conspicuous on the sidewalk.
  2. imposing
    impressive in appearance
    After six or seven blocks, the high-rise buildings became less imposing, less ornamental.
  3. tenement
    a run-down apartment house barely meeting minimal standards
    I passed under the narrow balconies clinging to the run-down tenements.
  4. licentious
    lacking moral discipline
    “Well, she’s accusing you of several things, including ensnaring her son Russell into a licentious relationship. And destruction of property.”
  5. livid
    furiously angry
    I was livid, too livid to be embarrassed about saying such things to Ba and Ma.
  6. appalled
    struck with dread, shock, or dismay
    Mrs. Kuen’s gaze darted between Ba and me; she was plainly appalled that a girl would speak to her father like this.
  7. deference
    a courteous expression of esteem or regard
    I couldn’t help but notice the deference Ba paid to Mrs. Kuen by allowing her to speak, allowing her to advise him.
  8. supersede
    take the place or move into the position of
    Her esteemed position in the community, with the church, and as someone who could speak almost unaccented English seemed to supersede her position as a woman.
  9. apoplectic
    marked by extreme anger
    Kuen was gone, I steeled myself for Ba’s apoplectic rage.
  10. slanderous
    harmful and often untrue; tending to discredit or malign
    A week after Mrs. Kuen delivered the slanderous report about me, Ma pushed me out the back door with a basket of laundry as bulky as one of the carved rosewood trunks Ba sold in the store.
  11. irrepressible
    impossible to control
    An irrepressible ache mounted in me, urging me to jump on a Yellow Car and hitch a ride downtown to try to catch sight of—
  12. prude
    a person excessively concerned about propriety and decorum
    I glanced at the second-floor window where I knew her classroom was, hoping that the old prude wouldn’t peer out and spot me in the crowd.
  13. frivolous
    not serious in content, attitude, or behavior
    Anna May’s voice was quite deep, but the tone was light, frivolous, different from what I’d imagined when I’d seen her on the silent screen.
  14. angst
    an acute but unspecific feeling of anxiety
    Her face was full of angst, but she didn’t say anything.
  15. wayward
    difficult to manage or keep in order
    In the back room, she tucked a few wayward strands into the hair bun at her nape and tied an apron over her housedress.
Created on Fri Feb 20 06:55:14 EST 2026 (updated Thu Feb 26 13:38:04 EST 2026)

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